Regional U.S. cell service carrier C Spire will start selling and supporting Apple’s iPhone 4S on Friday, November 11. The carrier is touting its unlimited data plans as a selling point for the iPhone, but two of its “unlimited” data plans preclude any streaming services such as music and video.
C Spire announced in mid October that it would be the fourth iPhone partner in the U.S., following AT&T, Verizon and now Sprint. The company was previously named Cellular South, and offers a CDMA-based cell network, like Verizon and Sprint, that services customers in Mississippi, and parts of Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.
Offering unlimited data plans is good news for C Spire’s customers, but by restricting the types of data they can access over its 3G network, the company could be overstepping FCC regulations. Pending regulation changes will prohibit cell services providers from restricting streaming from specific services such as Netflix and Pandora, which is exactly what C Spire’s lowest priced data packages claim to do.
Despite the streaming limitation, C Spire is claiming all of its iPhone data plans include “unlimited data.”
Along with the iPhone 4S, C Spire will offer the 8GB iPhone 4. The carrier will sell the iPhone 4S for $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB version, and is accepting preorders now.